Uncategorized

On November 27th, the clock ran out on Morningside’s football season as MidAmerica Nazarene defeated them 34-10 in Olathe, Kansas. The loss not only wrapped up a successful season for the Morningside Mustang football team, but also a successful career for the Morningside seniors, including 5th year senior Ben Haugen.

Ben Haugen is a senior defensive end for the Morningside Mustang football team and has put together an impressive football resume during his time at Morningside College. Haugen was named to the GPAC All-Conference team twice (2009, 2010) and was Morningside’s only All-American last year.

“I enjoyed my time here at Morningside and I’d be lying to you if I told you that football was something that came easy for me, the truth is I had to work hard all year round to improve and become a better player.”

Ben Haugen was born in Estherville, Iowa and played football for his high school team there. Haugen, who considered himself an “average” high school player really broke out and became a force to be reckoned with as a Mustang.

Chris Calvillo, a junior linebacker from Sioux City, said that, “Ben really took on the role of leader this year. He wanted the best out of this team and from all of us as individuals.”

This summer, the Morningside football team had “optional” running and workouts and Haugen did his best to make sure that all of the guys were there. “It was hard to try and get everyone to running and conditioning in the summer because there were days when I didn’t even want to be there and I knew that other people were busy with there jobs.”

Junior defensive lineman John Kirwan played two full seasons with Haugen after transferring to Morningside from South Dakota State. “Ben’s work ethic is second to none and he’s always willing to work and get better.”

Most athletes have specific pre game rituals that they will do before games. Some athletes do these rituals because of superstition while others do it just to get into the right state of mind before a game. Ben Haugen was no different and did the same thing before every game. Haugen would eat two power bars and drink two vitamin waters. “The power bars and vitamin waters made me feel energized and hydrated during the games.”

Haugen used to wear excessive eye black on his face, but due to a change in GPAC rules, was not allowed to this year. “I definitely miss not being able to wear all that eye black. It made me feel like some kind of savage when I was out there on the field.”

Haugen is majoring in business at Morningside and is planning on graduating this month. He aspires to be a personal trainer or go into claims adjusting. Ben wasn’t highly recruited out of high school and didn’t sign with Morningside until May of his senior year. He about chose to go play football at Wartburg College in Waverly.

“Looking back on my college choice, I’m glad that I chose to go with Morningside and I have enjoyed my team here.” It’s safe to say that Morningside is also happy with Haugen’s choice as he leaves behind a storied legacy on and off the field.

Financially, would there be a better occupation than being a professional baseball player?
Free agents this winter have made a killing and the more players I see sign, the more I wonder, where does this money come from?
The Boston Red Sox signed outfielder Carl Crawford to a 7 year deal worth $142 million dollars. That is over 20 million dollars a year to play a sport where you spend most of your time standing around, sitting down, and eating sunflower seeds.
To be fair to Carl Crawford though, he is one hell of an athlete. Coming out of high school he was recruited by UCLA for basketball and the Nebraska Cornhuskers wanted him to be there option style quarterback. Ultimately, Crawford chose to go pro out of high school and become a professional baseball player and that decision obviously worked out for him.
Carl Crawford isn’t the only major league baseball player testing the free agent market this summer and making a ton of money.
If you’re not a baseball fan then the name Jayson Werth probably doesn’t ring a bell. Thats okay because I am a baseball fan and he’s nothing special, just your average major league outfielder. Anyway, the Washington Nationals felt the need to give this 32 year old outfielder a 7 year contract worth $126 million dollars!
Werth has made the all star team one time in his career and will be 39 years old by the time his contract is up.
The money that these professional athletes make is outrageous. I know that they generate a lot of revenue, but paying a baseball player close to $20 million dollars a year is disgusting. Every off season players make more money and you have to ask yourself, when will we draw the line and say enough is enough?
I personally don’t think that we will see a time when the payroll is cut and I am waiting to see who the first player is to get rewarded with a $200 million dollar contract.
http://natsbaseball.blogspot.com/2010/12/rizzo-not-stupid-says-hes-not-done.html

The family of a former Rutgers University student has agreed to put their son’s name on a piece of anti- harassment legislation.

Tyler Clementi was a student at Rutgers University and he committed suicide after his roommate videotaped a sexual encounter between Clementi and another man as the video steamed online.

Clementi’s body was found in the Hudson River in September. His body was recovered a week after he jumped off the George Washington Bridge.

The bill that is being passed is supposed to make colleges more aware of bullying and harassment that deal with gay, lesbian, and transgender students. This bill would require any college that receives federal aid to create policies prohibiting the harassment of any student.

A story like this shows the new form of bullying that has been created. Cyber bullying is starting to become a problem nationwide and its becoming more common as technology continues to advance. Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey has taken the issue of cyber bullying very seriously and is looking to get more laws passed like this one.

Dharun Ravi, 18, who was Clementi’s roommate and Molly Wei, 18, have been charged with invasion of privacy. Both of their lawyers have claimed that they are innocent.

Nearly 400,00 people have had to leave their homes and 206 people have been pronounced dead after an Indonesian volcano erupted.

On October 26, Mount Merapi erupted. Mount Merapi is located on the island of Java and is right next to the city of Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta is a major city in Indonesia and had a population of 388,000 during the last census.

The National Disaster Coordination Agency has recovered more bodies in the villages and in total, 150 people burned to death.

This disaster has brought panic and chaos to Indonesia. Almost 400,000 people are still displaced around Yogyakarta and disaster officials are saying that this volcanic eruption may be the worst ever.

This eruption set records for releasing magma. It released 140 million cubic meters of magma which shatters the old record of 100 million cubic meters.

Although this was considered the biggest volcanic eruption in Indonesia’s history, it wasn’t the most deadly. In 1930, Mount Merapi erupted and took over 1300 lives.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyona has referred to the volcano as a crisis situation. He plans to visit Yogyakarta over the weekend to oversee relief efforts.

The Miami Heat are going to have a target on their back every night this season with all the hyper surrounding this team of superstars.

The Boston Celtics, last year’s Eastern Conference champs, were the first stepping stone for the Miami Heat on Tuesday Night. The Celtics came into the game playing their trademark tough defense and held the Heat to a franchise low 9 first quarter points and ultimately ended up winning the game 88-80.

It was just 3 seasons ago that the Boston Celtics acquired a “big 3” that led them to a world title. There were a lot of questions coming into this game as to whether or not the Celtics Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce could hang with the young Miami Heat, but all of these questions were answered early as the Celtics jumped out to an early double digit lead. Garnett, Allen, and Pierce combined for 49 points on Tuesday Night.

The big 3 in Miami actually outscored the Celtics big 3 51-49 thanks in large part to Lebron James pouring in 31 points. The Heat looked sloppy and players and coaches both stated in press conferences that this is going to be a work in Progress. Lebron James probably said it best when he stated that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

As for the Boston Celtics, they quickly proved all the doubters wrong about being to old to compete this year. With a roster composed of aging veterans, Boston wants to show the world that age is just a number and these “old guys” can still play.

An unlikely duo has formed the band “Don Juan.” The band is made up of musician John Dodge and English teacher Don Cooper.

Although John has a stable career as an English teacher, he did admit that giving up his dream of being a full time rockstar was difficult. “It took a long time to shuck the robe of responsibility,” recalls Cooper. “I fought it for three years, saying, well, I love to write songs, but I don’t think I can make a career out of it.”

One critic said that “they do nothing original and that they steal all of their songs and the ones they do write are not worth listening to.”

Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but James Taylor and Jackson Browne seem to see some potential in Don Juan. In fact, Don Juan even did a show with them in New York last summer. John Dodge said that “James (Taylor) has been a fan for awhile and Jackson Browne turned into a real solid supporter.

The object that I was searching for was a rubber band that wasn’t beige. This was going to be a difficult task because most rubber bands are beige in color.

The first place I went was the library. I asked a couple people in the library that didn’t look too busy if they had the rubber band I was looking for and neither of them did. I could tell that the people I asked were confused at what I was doing by the look on their faces.

I made my way to the cafeteria where I found Mary. I decided to ask Mary if she had a rubber band because she looked welcoming. It turned out that Mary did in fact have a blue rubber band. When I asked Mary what her reaction was to my request, she simply replied, “well I gave it to ya” with a smile on her face.

I think that its fair to say that Donovan McNabb never go the respect that he deserved when he played in Philadelphia.

When McNabb was drafted by the Eagles as the number two overall pick in 1999, he heard boos instead of cheers. The Philly faithful wanted to see their team take running back Ricky Williams instead.

After leading the Eagles to five NFC Championship games, one Super Bowl, and being named to the Pro Bowl team six times, the Eagles decided to part ways with McNabb this past offseason and sent him to Washington.

This weekend the unappreciated McNabb returns to Philadelphia and he doesn’t know if he’ll be booed or cheered. I think it will be disgrace if McNabb isn’ cheered after everything he did for that organization. Philadelphia sports fans are known for being hard to please, but if they choose to boo McNabb they are just ignorant. They couldn’t have asked for a much better quarterback for the ten years he was there.

It’s kind of a shame that Mike Vick has played so well in the absence of Kevin Kolb because if he wasn’t playing so good, the Eagle fans would truly miss McNabb.

I expect McNabb to get booed on Sunday when he returns to Philadelphia and when he does, its all the more reason for me to classify Philadelphia sports fans as the worst in the country.

Philippians 4:13 isn’t really your traditional quote because its a bible verse. The verse reads, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I feel like thats a very powerful verse and I have it tattooed on my chest. I grew up Catholic and have a pretty strong faith so I find that bible verse very important.